Science and Faith
by twoplustwoequalsfive
Summary: Kat moves out to the Valley from Celeste City to work on her Astrophysics doctorate to the ranch her ancestors used to run. One thing her education has taught her, though, is that she can't rely on telescopes and observations to align her stars as she finds herself caught up in mysteries of science and faith. Jill x ? read it and see!
1. The Pain of Trains

_Author's Note: Ahhhhh! Sorry to have been away so long but I'm glad to be back. I had a lot of uni work to do and I got caught up in life, and returned to this wonderful little piece that I had planned. Basically, I have come back by fixing up the errors in this chapter (thank you lovely reviewer!) and by updating some details in the chapter. I would just like to point out a few things as a bit of context:_

 _1\. Kat is my name for Jill as it's what I called her in the DS game. Note that for practical reasons, she will not always be wearing the typical ponytail and overalls, as I just don't think we should wear the same thing everyday lol. Also, she isn't a farmer in this version!_

 _2\. This story has an elaborate backstory with many twists, turns and pairings. I don't want to tag any because while I do have it planned out, I am open to responses and am working as I go along also. Any backstory that I have changed has been for practical reasons also (Celia being Marlin's niece, e.g - I prefer that they are the supportive family of friends for Kat, and that's why they have a bit of backstory here.)_

 _3\. If there's a particular character you'd like written in, from Mineral Town for example, don't be afraid to ask! Pairings, backstories, anything you want me to put together let me know. While this story has a trajectory, a story and a mystery embroiled into it already, with plenty of plot twists (and no love triangles, contrary to popular belief) but I would always love to see more layers._

 _4\. I also doodle! I'll be changing my profile pictures to become spoilers for the oncoming chapters. My PP at the minute is a doodle of Marlin from Chapter 2, wherein Kat first meets him as a fully grown adult and he is not as welcoming as she might have hoped. In fact, the first words he utters are, "another rich kid coming to see if she can make it out in the sticks?" That's the moment depicted. More soon!_

 _Enjoy my lovelies xxxxx_

 **The Pain of Trains**

Trains, I find, are a phenomena in themselves. I'm really not sure what it is about them, but every time I get on one I get the distinct feeling of being unwelcome. Take a bus, for example. You get on and buy a ticket and before you're even sitting down there's a lady nattering in your ear about the weather and how soon the next holiday is and how the year is flying by and do you want to see a picture of her grandson? Gorgeous, isn't he-

 _Ahem._ Trains, on the other hand, are silent, judgemental and a little intimidating for a five foot seven lady struggling with two suitcases and a bag. Which is where I am at this very moment in time, lugging my belongings up a tight aisle and trying desperately not to make eye contact with the people whose feet I'm rolling over. The carriage is packed with large families and women who feel the need to seat their bags in a separate seat to themselves and yet it's the last economy carriage in the whole train and the only train in the whole if Celeste City Train Station that runs out into the country. It comes once a week, stops at twenty five different stops and chugs on into the night, arriving at Mineral Way station at approximately 6:15AM. The struggle is that I haven't brought an alarm clock and Mineral Way "station" looks more like a bus shelter, so if I don't wake up in time for the stop I'll end up on my way back home and another 200G train ticket to pay for. Of course, if I had to stand for the whole journey I probably wouldn't do much sleeping anyway.

"It's alright, no need to all jump at once and help," I muttered to myself as I yanked my luggage past a man tutting and sighing at my very existence. The carriage seemed to go on forever, each seat I passed just as full as the last. To make matters worse the sun had begun to set, wedged neatly between the distant rolling hills and blinding me as it illuminated the carriage in a calming orange glow. The opposite, I thought, of the storm of anxiety raging inside me as I realised I was at the end of the carriage. I wiped my sweat-slicked hands down the front of my blouse and took stock. There was enough room for my bags in the overhead lockers; I supposed I could stand until a seat freed up. But with everyone staring at me, I wasn't sure how long I'd last without experiencing a full blown panic attack.

The moment of anxiety was followed by some sort of relief as I heard the carriage door slide open to reveal a young porter, who had obviously seen me struggling and had come to my rescue. He smiled at me, a flick of black hair concealing most of his forehead and one of his eyes, and I smiled back dumbly, wondering if he'd have to upgrade me to first class to save me from my plight. Plush chairs, free drinks, all the space in the world...

"Excuse me miss, can I get past? I have a food cart to get through this carriage." Of course.

"Sorry, I just...there's nowhere..." I faltered as he turned away from me, clearly on the 16th hour of a shitty paid job. Alrighty then, mister porter. I'll just wave my magic wand and accommodate everyone on this stupid sardine packed train by flying out the window and never returning! I was seriously considering squeezing out the window and living along the railway for the rest of my life when someone spoke from behind me.

"Oh! Excuse me. I didn't see you there. I have spare room once I move my things..." I turned around and connected the soft voice to a gentle looking nurse hurriedly moving her things out of the way. She was a dainty little thing and all her movements were precise, graceful. Inviting, even. The only show of kindness I had received since I waved my mother goodbye at Celeste Train Station and got on this godforsaken train twenty minutes ago, I almost collapsed on top of the seats she had cleared for me . She had commandeered a window seat with a table, and spread across it were an array of diagrams and documents. She quickly cleared these away while I reached to open the hold space. Empty!

By the time I had shoved my luggage in and sat down she had cleared the papers into one neat pile and was studying me curiously with wide eyes.

"I don't think I've seen you on this train before. I'm Elli." She extended a petite hand which I took with obvious surprise. Her laugh was a musical tinkle. "Sorry, I forgot the city is a lot less formal than Mineral Town. Is that where you're headed? I don't think I caught your name."

"Kat," I said, slightly flustered by the grace that accompanied her presence. She was effortlessly kind, and the day's last sunshine had enveloped her and framed her face in a warm glow. "I'm just moving out actually. My relatives owned a ranch out there and it's still in the family-"

"A farmer!"

"Not exactly," I said sheepishly. "I, uh, decided to do a few bits of research out in the sticks. Lots of opportunities to learn and discover. I'm being funded to come out here and study astrophysics." For the past eight years, this was exactly what I had been studying to do – History and Astrophysics, and this final year would complete my doctorate and make me officially qualified to do whatever I wanted. The complete other end from farming, I know, and Elli thought the same.

"You're kidding with me now!" She let out a giggle and I found it contagious, laughing along with her. "You must be terribly interested in astronomy to be so far out. Stargazing is a favourite pastime for a lot of people in the Valley and Mineral Town – remind me to send you up to the mountain on a clear night!"

"I might just have to take you up on that offer," I said with a small smile. It was the first time in a long time I'd felt a real sense of accomplishment. I was happy that my move had started out so positively. Triumphant to have made a friend.

Dinner came and went in that stupid cart with the bored porter and we ate in companionable silence for a while. As the lights inside the train came on coinciding with the growing darkness outside, the spotlights illuminated the stack of paper beside her, and I motioned to it with my napkin.

"Say, what are those for? Did you go to the city to visit, or to study?"

"I'm a nurse in Mineral Town. Small as we may be, Dr Trent insists I attend the annual conference in Celeste." I nodded my understanding – the Waterside Hall was always crawling with doctors at this time of year. "Do you have everything you need to get settled?"

I sat back, wiping my mouth and nodding. The food had filled the hole in my stomach and I remembered my last meal - this morning with my mother. She had packed my personal belonging suitcase carefully while I'd eaten my last breakfast with her, and she'd asked me if I had everything for the fiftieth time. This memory almost made me laugh. Celeste had been my home for the last 26 years and leaving it had been painful, but a year was only a fractional slice in the grand scheme. Besides, after a year I'd be out of this backwater valley and back to the city with the reputation of a kickass thesis. I motioned to the far hills and farms that were just visible in the fading light.

"I spoke to Gotz on the phone and we worked out a price for the house upgrade, a shed for my observatory and a room to work in..." My smile faded as the realisation of the debt I was now in became a reality. I had literally just about sold my dignity to get him out to the ranch. Elli nodded knowingly.

"Gotz makes you dig deep, but he builds well. You won't have to build anything again and repair work will be minimum and free." She reached into her bag to remove the folded blanket she'd packed on top, dropping her bag to the floor and spreading out on the seats before her. "I take it you know Takakura?"

"Uncle Tak," I say cautiously, not wanting to expand, "is a close family friend. He knew my dad a long time ago. They grew up together on the ranch." My dad has always been a touchy subject, but Elli was smarter than to prod at the issue even though I knew she had caught on to my uneasiness. Eager to move away from the subject, I began rummaging through my own bag for my own blanket and pillow.

"Say, would you know Celia? She's an old friend of mine; we went to school together. She lives out in the valley too."

"Celia was quite a sickly child, so yes, unfortunately I know her better than most." Elli's eyes crinkled with a hint of sadness, and I felt the pang in my chest from the memories of spending rainy days indoors, praying that Celia would stop coughing.

My relationship with Celia was one of the reasons that convinced me to move out to the Valley in the first place. I had lived there for the first few years of my life when I was very young, and she would often visit her aunt Vesta during the summer. We were more or less the same age, so my mother would often take Celia so that Vesta could get on with her work, and we'd play on the ranch together. Even on those summer visits with the warming weather she would often fall ill, and I was the only child in the valley patient enough to wait for her to get better. In the end, we kept in touch despite her being a few years younger, and when I was looking for somewhere accessible to complete my research, Celia had suggested I return. It made sense: we already owned the land and I already knew her. I knew she'd moved out to the Valley again after school, but I could never really comprehend why. "Dr Hardy takes care of she and Marlin now, but he updates us yearly on their progress. It's something of a pleasure to watch her grow."I yawned, settling down across the seats, and realised that I hadn't fully registered what she'd told me.

"Marlin?" I had completely forgotten about Celia's uncle. Her grandparents had had him just a few years before their son had Celia, so when I was younger I could never understand how he was Celia's uncle. He was even more sickly than she was, so I hadn't actually met him more than a few times. "How are they all holding up?"

"Vesta, I suppose, is like Mr Takakura to you, and took Celia in for a job. She and Marlin have been helping out for a few years now. But enough about that, I'm sure you'll figure it all out tomorrow. You look exhausted. I'll wake you when we get to out stop." The overhead lights had dimmed down to a golden pool in the middle of the table, and there was a discernible shift of tiredness in the air as the whole carriage rolled over to go to sleep. I hoped the Valley hadn't changed in the 20 years I hadn't been there, and if it had, they were all as kind to me as Elli had been. My eyes were already closing when I saw her place her watch on the table, ticking until it's 6AM alarm. I smiled sleepily at her.

Note to self: find an Elli to buddy with next time you get on a train.


	2. Off on the Wrong Foot

**A/N: Wow, life has been completely hectic for me, but I'm glad to be back into writing! First off, I want to say that if you're continuing the story, Chapter One was rewritten, so please go back if you want it to make sense and read the A/N! Secondly, I am slowly emerging you into Kat's backstory, and introducing the main characters of the story, so bear with me. There is a lot to come, all meticulously planned! I want to reiterate that if you want to suggest a character you would like as a main character, a pairing you want to see a little/lot of, or a character written a certain way, my inbox is always open! Enjoy my lovelies xoxoxoxoxo**

Off on the Wrong Foot

 _Sunday, Spring 28_

I finally stepped off the train the next morning, the sun was already high in the sky and paving a blazing path before me. Having washed and changed quickly in the poky train bathroom, I felt a new sense of accomplishment at having survived a train journey on my own.

Well, not entirely on my own. Elli jumped down behind me effortlessly, bags in tow, looking unruffled by the temperature. She had promised to walk me into Mineral Town and show me the way to the Valley, and we all walked in comfortable silence, only a passing comment here or there about the natural beauty of the surroundings. It seemed that Celeste was a popular destination for country folk, all returning on the warm Sunday to resume routine.

The day was unusually warm for the end of Spring, and the walk took us through a bare field, with sheep dozing in the heat. Despite the lack of wind, I could sense that the air was different here – it had a cleaner, more revitalising quality that the congested city just couldn't possess. It felt like home. I felt a surge of loneliness – everything was so different, and brought over me an unexpected wave of nostalgia.

"It's weird to think I grew up here," I said absently. I wasn't even sure why I said it, but it slipped out of my mouth like sand through my fingers. Nobody replied; the walk was becoming gruelling. Warm air shimmied above the dusty rock path, and bees droned around flowering yellow gorse. It wasn't a long journey, but the temperature distorted my sense of stamina and I already felt tired.

"I take it you'll see Celia on your way to your new home?" Elli called over her shoulder eventually. I realised I was lagging slightly behind her comfortable pace and hurried along to keep up.

"Will I pass it this way?" I asked. I had been to Mineral Town many times when I was younger, but only ever to the library with my mother. The memory was blurred together with other libraries, other market places. I could barely remember my grandmother's voice, lost in a sea of memories that was my tumultuous childhood.

"Just off the path from Mineral Town. It's a big enough farm; you couldn't miss it." This shook me from my recollections.

"And Mineral Town itself?" I had begun to struggle with my bags. To this she simply pointed, and as we came over the top of the slightly hilly field we were on I saw it. Wedged below us was the quaint little town, all coloured buildings and beaten paths. I could see a little ranch from where we stood, large enough for a small field of crops and a barn. I wondered if it was a real farmer, or some idiot who had just rented the place out for research. Like, you know, me.

"It's not much," Elli said with a small smile, "but it's home."

I had never really understood the concept of a home. The ranch I was going to visit was my Grandfather's, and I had lived there for a few years after I was born. My mother and father had met at boarding school in the city at age 15, and she was pregnant by the time they were 18. Completely shunned by her family, she and my father moved back to his parents' ranch, and they took us all in: no judgments, just love. My earliest memory was the calves being born in the Spring after my third birthday and how small they had been. After that, it was the apartment we lived in when my father got his first job in the city when I was 6, and I was forced to take this in as my new home. We weren't even there two years before it was on to a bigger apartment when he was promoted. After a year there my mother and I left – my dad wasn't the same person I remembered from my childhood on the ranch, and our little apartment raised me til the very moment I left it, approximately 18 hours ago.

I hadn't spoken to him in years, and it was hard coming out here in a way – this was his father's place, and he had always wanted him to look after it once he died. Dad had other plans. My grandfather was nothing like him; he had let us live out here while we found our feet as a family. I felt like it would be more comforting to study on the land than painful. Certainly if it was as pretty as Mineral Town, which we were fast approaching. It only took a few minutes of walking to reach the path with the sign for Forget-Me-Not Valley, and Elli turned to me with a small smile that lay somewhere between fondness and sadness. She took my hands in hers and squeezed tightly.

"I know you love science and logic, but I feel like we were meant to meet! You made the train journey so much more pleasant. Please drop into Dr Trent's clinic whenever you can, and good luck!" And just like that, she was gone, me smiling after her goofily.

The crowd moved fairly quickly in one direction or the other, and I followed a group of people along the stony path to the valley. It took a mere ten minutes, passing tall hedges and long rows of flower beds, standing to attention, commanded by the sun. A mother and son in front of me were engaged in hearty conversation, and I was lulled to comfort by their back-and-forth.

"Mom, can we have cake when we get home?" He asked hopefully, lugging a little suitcase behind him. His blonde hair seemed to shine in the light. His mother audibly sighed, but she leaned in closer to him and caught his hand.

"Maybe one slice. And don't tell your dad!" Even though I couldn't see his face I could imagine the massive grin there. There was something different in the air here, something hopeful. And even though I found myself alone in the bright glow of the afternoon, knuckles white from gripping my bags and the rest of my skin red from the relentless sun, I could feel something different about the place. Something I hadn't felt in a long, long time.

Something, I realised, that could come rushing back to me in a matter of seconds and have me stumbling over my luggage and down the path to the quaint little farmhouses with the fenced fields and the uniform rows of crops, to the spot where one of my best friends stood for the first time in 20 years.

Celia looked better than ever, even from this distance; her long brown hair was glossy in the sunlight and she stood tall among the crops. Everyone on the path had seen me blunder over my suitcases, including her, but she'd simply dropped the watering can in her hand and eased herself over the fence, colliding with me as I caught my arms around her. She felt like all kinds of home.

"Kat! You didn't tell me you were coming today!" I buried my head into the soft cloth of her dress in reply. She always smelled like she'd just taken a warm batch of cookies from the oven, even on a summer's day. "I can't believe you're here again!"

"I can't either." I loosened my grip on her and took a sheepish step back, grappling with my bags again. I couldn't take the smile off my face. "How have you been?"

"Honestly, I've been amazing." The warmth in her voice matched the happiness on her face.

"I came out here to help aunt Vesta after I'd finished school, after Grandpa died. She needed the help and I needed the job. And it's wonderful! The air does my sickness good, and now you're here too!" She took my hands and squeezed them, and I remembered the custom from my distant childhood. It was a way of showing thanks for someone. Elli had did the same thing to me when she left me not long before. "How are you?"

"A little scared, I'm not going to lie." The frown on her face made me go on. "I haven't been in the farmhouse in 20 years, Celia. What if everything's changed?"

"And what," she asked with a small smile, "if everything's stayed the same?"

She took me inside; it was approaching midday and the sun was climbing too high for anyone to work in. Armed with one of my bags, she guided me into the house that had been like my second home. It took my eyes a second to adjust to the artificial yellow lighting, but when it did I was surprised – relieved? – to find that the only thing that had changed was the general décor. The large pot stove and kitchen dominated much of the back wall, and the same large table where I was always welcome for dinner sat front and centre at the front of the room. Sitting in two adjacent seats munching on sandwiches were two people; ghosts from my childhood. I could barely get a word out when Vesta stood, lunch half-chewed in her mouth.

"My god. Wee Kat Donovan, you're a bloody woman!"

She pulled me into a huge hug, all breasts and arms. I couldn't help but squeeze her tight back. "Last time I saw you, you were six years of age and came to my waist!"

"It's lovely seeing you too, Vesta," I said with a laugh. She didn't let go until she felt it'd been long enough, and even then only released me slowly. "How's the business?"

"Booming!" she said with a booming laugh to match. "Our vegetables are all organic, all grown by the three of us. You know you can have whatever you want to help you get on your feet while you're here. We don't mind at all-"

"Speak for yourself." I turned to the sole remaining occupant of the table, a man of dark features. His eyes surveyed me from top to bottom; I could tell it was from curiosity and not malice, but it still made me uncomfortable under his gaze. A slightly amused expression passed over his features. "Some of us work hard for a living." Voices are one thing that don't change – his had broken with age, and had a rougher quality to it, but it remained a ghost from my childhood.

"Marlin. So nice to see you too," I said sarcastically. I don't know what I expected, perhaps a hand shake or even him to rise to greet me, but he didn't budge. I stood awkwardly instead. It was he who broke the silence, taking another gulp of his soup.

"Another rich kid seeing if she can come make it out in the sticks?" he asked casually. There was an undertone of sarcasm, but his words were still biting. "Daddy-funded, I assume?" I instantly regretted engaging with him, the words washing over me like a second wave of realisation. These people would see me in terms of my father; of the village gossip that no doubt had been passed on in my absence. My mouth opened and stayed there; I felt a heat creep up my neck, and the notion to cry restricted my throat. Nothing sent me off like my father. Vesta got there first.

"Marlin, _attitude_!" she roared, and the broken silence gave me and opportunity to swallow the lump in my throat. "You have no idea-"

"C'mon, Vesta," he snapped back irritably, dropping his spoon and pushing back his chair. This was not the sickly little boy I remembered; he stood, towering a full 6 inches over me. "What do we owe her? As soon as her father got his Business Degree, he was too good for us. They didn't visit, not even when Old Mr Donovan passed-"

"Uncle Marlin, that's _enough_!" There was little age difference between Celia and Marlin; Vesta's sister and mother were pregnant only a few years apart. I'd never heard her call him uncle. It was the only absent thought I clung to as I fought to repress my anger, failing miserably. Vesta crossed her arms, and I recognised the angry curl of her mouth before she would begin to shout. Celia stormed past him to reach me, nudging him out of the way as she went. He simply swayed at the little impact the action had on him, and for some reason this sent me into action. I snatched my bags up into my hands, masking the fact it was shaking uncontrollably.

"So glad to know you've kept up with my life so well," I spat back at him, "but you've missed out on a few minor details. When grandpa died, Dad was off on business, so we had to organise everything. Took every scrap of saving we had, 'cuz Dad's 'business' was with his secretary. I haven't lived with him since I was 7; my two jobs are what got me out here eventually. But anyway, how are _you_? I'm so happy you haven't turned into a presumptuous, entitled _prick_."

I don't know where the sheer bitchiness came from, especially in front of Celia and Vesta, but as soon as the word vomit left my mouth all that was left in me was an ocean of tears, pushing up against my eyes and threatening to spill down my cheeks. Marlin's mouth was slightly open, struggling to form a sentence, but I never gave him the chance. I knew I had to get out of there.

People have confronted me about a lot of things in my life, especially being a woman in my field, but for some reason this was too much. I turned on my heels and made my way towards the door, numb to Celia's calls for me to wait. I couldn't stand there any longer.

"You horrible idiot!" I heard the tail ends of Vesta's verbal tirade. "Have you no idea what that girl has even…"

The shift in brightness to the unrelenting midday sun only disorientated me further, blindly stumbling down the dirt path to my right. This was a journey I'd made a thousand times before, in another life, but one I could never forget. Would everyone in the valley think the same thing as me whenever they saw me? That I was just some entitled, stuck up rich kid who'd come back as some sort of social experiment? My father had already permanently damaged my relationship with my grandfather, and now that he was gone that damage was irreversible. It made me so anxious to think that he could damage my relationship with old friends in the valley. By the time I stumbled up the path to the farm, I was heaving. I couldn't even make it into my pocket to get the key out.

I was sweating from the midday sun and full-force crying now; my potentially hopeful start seemed to be slipping away from me already. Flinging my bags to the floor, I slid down the side of the wooden farmhouse, grinding the heel of my hand into my eye sockets. _Pull yourself together! It's one person's opinion!_

I couldn't bring myself to pull myself together for at least another ten minutes. The sun was starting to head behind the old farmhouse, so at least I was able to have my Complete Emotional Breakdown of the Century in the shade. Even when I'd calmed enough to think straight, my anger hadn't subsided. I kept my head buried in my hands, trying desperately to control myself.

"Everything will be fine. You just need to get up, forget about it and not care. You need to start as you mean to go on. You need to…" I faltered. There was no uniform way of approaching a new life, with new friends and your career on the line. There was certainly no easy way of facing the past head on. I was so wrapped up in my thoughts that I didn't hear the shuffle of shoes on the packed dirt, nor the heavy breathing of their owner.

"You know," a familiar voice said, and I whipped my head up from my hands in surprise. Between the purple shapes dancing in front of my vision, I could make out a small, hunched over man in a white vest, skin darkened and dirt permanently etched in his face by years of working outside. The man had lived next door to my grandpa for as long as any of us could remember. My mother must have told him I was coming, a comforting thought. "When I met your mother for the first time, she was sitting in the exact same spot you were. She was pregnant at 16 and thought it was the very end of the world." To my surprise, he slid down the wall next to me. I could smell a familiar mix of sawdust and soil. "Tell me, Kat Donovan, are your problems so big you can't leave them in this spot, walk through that door and not look back?"

"I missed you too, Uncle Tak," I said through a strained smile. He shuffled closer, throwing an arm around me. "How's tricks?"

"All good. I hear your taking over my farm to build a goddamn telescope," he said lightly, and I smiled genuinely this time. "'Atta girl. Wanna tell me while you're sitting here alone?" My face fell again; the answer was not a straightforward one. My mixed emotions were only exacerbated by the heat, and at the risk of being dramatic, I shrugged.

"Ever just...wonder if what you're doing is the right thing? Or if you made a horrible mistake, and should run back to your bed and hide under it for the rest of your life?"

He shot me a sideways grin and for a few seconds, all that I could hear was the humming of bees in the heat and the distant sounds of a working day. Then he stood, slowly but purposely, and held out two weathered hands to me.

"Only one way to find out, my dear." I stared at his outstretched hands hesitantly. Tak seemed to sense this, and he winked at me; the sunlight catching his eye made it twinkle. I let out a long breath. "Adventure is the best way to learn, don't you know?"

I took his hands, and let him pull me to my feet.


End file.
